A new network flow model for determining the assortment of roll types in packaging industry

This paper reports work motivated by a real world assortment problem in packaging industry. A novel network flow model has been developed to solve the problem of selecting the optimal set of roll types for use in production. The model can incorporate fixed costs that depend on the number of elements in the assortment as well as the selected roll types. While the tradeoff between inventory cost and cost of waste is resolved optimally through the model, graphical understanding of the trade-off can bring insights into the decision making process. This graphical analysis has been demonstrated on a computational example.